Foot Rub.

Mind the swearing. It's part of the fic. I'm back to school – organic chemistry and physics with applied calculus. Oh, joy.

Warning: Rated T for continuous swearing.


Levi dumped his entire body on the couch, legs dangling over the curvy wooden armrest and an arm over his closed eyes. He sighed, pulling on his cravat with the other hand and throwing it away.

It was one of those absurd days. Yes, those ones. Where everything that can go wrong, did go wrong.

It started at three in the morning. Seven out of the ten titans Hanji currently experimented on had escaped. No one knew how it happened, but the priority was to kill the fucking things on the spot. It was all hands on deck. Every fucking soldier in the Survey Corps and that wasn't a lot. Troops were assigned into squads led by Erwin, Mike, and Hanji, and Levi's Special Ops. They split up in different directions with the objective of slaying them before reaching the cities and towns.

Oh, such fucking fun.

With zero casualties and a successful operation, the sun had already risen. Heading back to headquarters, peculiar black smoke stemmed from that direction. Jean galloped ahead of the soldiers, having one of the fastest horses. They discovered that a portion of the headquarters had gone on fire. Apparently, a soldier had forgotten to extinguish their fireplace and the fire somehow spread.

Erwin and Hanji's squads remained in headquarters, dumping buckets and shovels filled with dirt to contain the fire while Mike and Levi's squads dashed to the lake within the training forest and collected gallons of water before returning and finally extinguishing the fire.

The fucking mess wasn't going to clean itself.

Until two in the afternoon, they spent hours on cleaning and rebuilding the destroyed portion of the castle. And Erwin, being the fucking prick he is, announced that training schedule was still to be followed with no excuse. The Commander had good intentions, but it doesn't mean everyone had to fucking like it.

Training was… well, a fucking disaster. You get the picture.

By the end of the day, a few soldiers were sent to the infirmary – twisted ankles, dislocated shoulders, minor concussions during 3DMG training.

It was a bad fucking day.

Levi groaned, feeling discomfort from his feet. Taking off his boots and smelly socks, he jammed the ball of his foot to a particular curve of the wooden armrest, twisting it in hopes of soothing its ache.

Whilst cursing about his foot, the door of his chambers opened.

Mikasa Ackerman entered with a tray holding tea and the dinner he missed, balancing it with one palm as she closed his door. He saw that she was exhausted as well. Her clothes were patched with black and brown from smoke and dirt. Her back was no longer poised in confidence as it was now hunched. Her gray eyes were half-lidded from the lack of sleep.

Even Humanity's Strongests can only take so much in one day.

Noticing his distress, Mikasa walked towards his couch after setting the tray on his desk.

"Sore feet, sir?"

She received a grumble in response.

He continued to jam his foot on the armrest. Eventually, it started to squeak.

Sighing after watching for a few moments, she sat down on the small table in front of his couch. "Corporal… that won't do you any good."

Peeping out from under his arm, he glared and gave her his infamous tch.

Mikasa reached out to take his foot. As soon as her index finger came in contact with his toe, her superior's body jerked and sat up on his elbows, snarling, "Who the fuck told you you can touch my feet?"

Levi did not have fucking time for this. He was tired, irritable, and didn't have the fucking energy to deal with her or anyone's bullshit.

He just wanted his feet to stop aching.

Apparently, she, too, didn't have time to deal with bullshit – his bullshit – as she sighed once more and took his foot.

"Ackerman, fucking –" he pathetically struggled from the iron grip around his foot.

"Fucking bite me, Corporal." She had the nerve to roll her eyes and curse at him. "Just stop moving," she took his foot unto her lap.

Fuming with irritation and embarrassment with their position, he growled, "Ackerman, I fucking swear –"

"You can swear at me all you want, sir," she stated with her usual nonchalance and proceeded to rub her thumbs around the ball of his feet.

Her superior's reaction was almost instantaneous as the grouchy crease between his eyebrows faded away and his twisted scowl disintegrated. Within a few seconds, his position on the couch eased into something more comfortable, his head propped up with pillows as he watched her with now tender eyes.

She pretended to ignore his reaction, continuing to focus on appeasing his foot's pain. It had been a hard day for him, for all of them. She had already given Sasha an extra serving of bread, massaged Eren and Jean's shoulders, cracked Connie's back that was bent all day, and helped Armin finish writing an assigned report on regarding today's events. Corporal Levi was the only one left. Delivering dinner and massaging his foot was the least she could do.

"My foot is tingling," he murmured after a few minutes.

Her lips twitched into a small smile. It was funny to watch her Corporal in a dream-like state.

She scoffed, amused, "Yeah, it'll do that," her thumbs went to the arch of his foot.

He moaned as his eyes rolled up and closed, "That feels really good."

Warmth spread to her cheeks, he seemed to be much content to even comprehend his words. Switching feet, she cleared her throat and thought to find something else to talk about, "I used to do this to my father. He would work on the fields all day and I would sometimes step and massage his back."

"Your back rubs must be fucking heaven," he mumbled with his arms relaxed and crossed over his chest and his eyes still closed.

"…Eren and Armin said that as well."

"…fucking lucky bastards."

She watched as his breathing diminished into a calming pace and soon he was asleep. A light and almost inaudible snore escaped his half-opened mouth. Removing the blanket from his bed, she placed it over his body and quietly exited his room.

Returning to her chambers, Commander Erwin had just turned the corner of the hall to see her depart from the Corporal's room. Curious, he opened Levi's room and saw him dozing on his couch, his bare feet comically revealing themselves from beneath the blanket.